Matt Doherty came in for a lot of praise from fans for his comments after the defeat to Brentford, but Martin O’Neill has hit back at the Wolves defender.
Wolves lost 2-0 to the Bees at Molineux, turning in another woeful performance.
Rob Edwards has now lost all six of the games he’s been in charge for, which has just started to see some fans question his appointment.
What do you make of Matt Doherty’s post-Brentford remarks? 🤔
It was an emotionally-charged interview…
The worrying trend about Wolves under Edwards so far is that the team have actually been drawing in every game at half-time, but gone on to lose the game.
After the defeat to Brentford, Matt Doherty gave a rather pointed interview in which he asked whether his teammates wanted to fight or be cowardly.
Doherty’s rallying cry was appreciated by fans and also pundit Joe Hart, but earlier today Martin O’Neill wasn’t quite as complimentary.
Martin O’Neill dismisses Matt Doherty’s coward comments
After the defeat to Brentford, Doherty said: “Do we want to be remembered for fighting all the way to the end of season, or do we want to be remembered for being cowards and taking the easy option, maybe trying to leave in January, or not fighting and training, and letting other people take your position?
“We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out how we want to be remembered at the club.”
A lot of fans appreciated these remarks, and Doherty telling it like it is. For many, this was clear evidence that the 33-year-old cares deeply about the club’s fate.
But pundit Martin O’Neill – who recently had a spell as interim manager of Celtic – wasn’t having it earlier today on talkSPORT (via the Irish Independent): “If I was the Wolves manager, I wouldn’t listen to a word Matt was saying.
“Matt is a brilliant talker, a really good talker, but he’d want to do a bit more playing. Personally speaking, that’s self-absolvement.
“When you do plenty of that as a player, generally speaking, there’s not that much behind it all. Matt is a very good talker but wants to do more playing. You’re a player who has picked up two points from 17 games, two points out of 51. That’s not good enough.
“Matt hasn’t played all the games but he has been captain of the side. Take responsibility and genuinely do look in the mirror. Players can do a lot of talking but if you want to talk the talk, you must walk the walk.”
Harsh from O’Neill, Doherty was showing leadership
O’Neill and Doherty have previous from their time in the national team together, so perhaps there’s no love lost here.
But this is a somewhat harsh verdict from O’Neill, with Doherty likely asked to speak after. He was perhaps even obliged.
Some will actually probably agree with O’Neill, and feel actions speak louder than words.
But Wolves have no leaders at the moment apart from Doherty, and he showed leadership with his interview, talking about being remembered.
He was trying to dig deep for a response from his teammates, because none of them have been anywhere good enough this term.
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